Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1887-04-13
long AND SHORT HAUL.

COuIucAOh ~
provisions of the Interstate Commerce
Act in reference to Section 4, concerning
long and short hauls. Many persons
have had an idea that Congress had
established a rule for the construction OF
freight and passenger tariffs, by means
of which, if a railroad company should
charge So for 100 miles, it would be
compelled to charge just 81 for fifty
miles, no more and no less.
1t is, perhaps, just as well to state
here that the Act does not contemplate
any such iron-bound rule as that, nor at
tempt even to provide for the establish
ment Of a mileage rate. The Chronicle
from time to time-but only by way OF
illustration-has used some such expires,
sion as half.rates for half. distance, or
something equivalent, but always in a
purely tentative way, and not upon the
authority of the Act itself.
But we must correct an error into
which one OF our correspondents on this
subject has fallen. He says that the
only inhibition is against charging more
for a short haul than a long one, and, to
use his own words, "if they carry a ton
of merchandise to Chicago for $50, they
shall not charge more than $50 to carry
it to Salt Lake. They may charge as
much for the shorter as for the longer
distance, but not more" Our corre-
spondent did not read Section 4 with
care or he would have seen that that Sec
ton "shall not be construed as author
izing any common carrier within the
terms of this Act to charge and receive
as great compensation for a shorter as
for a longer distance"
Assuming, however, for the sake OF
the argument that the railroad should
undertake to make purely verbal dis.
tinctions in their construction of Section
4. For example, suppose they should
make a rate of 500 a ton from San Fran
cisco to Chicago and $40 80 from San
Francisco to Sacramento. They would
be clearly within the letter of Section 4,
and if the whole law were embraced IN
this section, their position would be i'm.
p~regnable. But, fortunately for those
who have to do business with the rail.
road, there are other sections which
must be read in connection with Section
4, and which must be held to limit its
operation. Section i, which is the
foundation section of the Act, prescribes
that all rates must be reasonable and
just :" and Section 3 provides against
undue or unreasonable preference or adj
vantage being given to any particular
locality and also against subjecting any
particular locality to any undue or I'M
reasonable prejudice or disadvantage in
any respect whatsoever.
It was in view of all these sections
that the illustration or suggestion OF
mileage rates was made, as a sort OF
rough-and.ready way Of arriving at just
and reasonable charges and OF avoiding
undue preference or advantage to one
locality over another.
That a tariff based upon such a calcu.
lation must eventually be adopted, there
can be but little doubt. A remark made
by Senator Stanford in the United States
Senate accentuates the ~propriety of max.
ing a general tariff based upon mileage.
He said: "We carry a ton Of wheat
from San Francisco to the Gulf of Mexico
5000 miles--for $40. For carrying
the same amount to a point halfway
1900 miles-we charge $50, and yet the
people at that point are not over.
charged"
Upon what principle, even of railroad
ethics, can it be commended that they are
not overcharged? What is there in a
rate of three times the amount for half
the distance that is reasonable and just ?
What other kind of business was ever
carried on upon such a basis as that?
None. we assert, since the days OF be-
leaguered cities, when the possessor OF a
store Of food charged his starving neigh
bors just what he chose. None since
King John and his robber barons used
to imprison the rich Jews and torture
them until they yielded such ransom as
their captors chose to extort. None since
Black Bart has retired from business
with a proud consciousness that when he
had left a stage passenger his clothes and
a dollar in money he had mot over
charged him. If Senator Stanford will
agree that $40 a ton was a proper charge
for 5000 miles, it necessarily follows
that $50 a ton was an overcharge for
1900 miles, except upon one principle
that of all the tariff would bear. If the
inhabitants of the halfway town had to
have the wheat, they would pay the $50